Lean on Me
by ladyd10
Summary: What happens after Calleigh fnds out that Eric has been living in that fleabag motel.......Possible spoilers for The Deluca Motel.


_**A/N: This is inspired just by the spoiler for Monday's Episode. "Deluca Motel". Just speculation and if this little scene or something similar doesn't happen, well, then it was just a wishful fantasy. At any rate, please enjoy. This is really intended as a one shot, but let me know if you want this to continue. **_

_**Lean on Me**_

Eric sat in the locker room, head in hands, desperately trying to control his out of control emotions. He wasn't having much success. He felt like his entire existence was coming apart; that he didn't even know who he was anymore. He didn't know whether to fly into a righteous rage or dissolve into heartbroken, miserable tears. Eric Delko's identity was a lie.

The door to the locker room opened quietly and closed just as quietly. Eric never heard the soft footfalls as Calleigh rounded the corner nearest his locker. She took in his slumped shoulders and defeated air and felt dread tug at her heart. This was worse than when he came back to work, perhaps too quickly, after suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). This was, possibly, as bad as him waking up in the hospital with no memory of his sister's murder. It was that same dread and sickening ache that settled itself in Calleigh stomach, making her nearly physically ill at the intensity.

She sat next to him. "Hey, I've been looking for you. You bolted pretty fast after talking to your mom."

He shrugged, saying nothing.

"So, I thought you looked upset by something. What's up?" she asked, trying to maintain a bright tone.

His shoulders slumped even more. "I just don't really want-"

"Eric, there's a reason that you're staying at that motel and you looked like you lost everything after talking with your mom, so what gives? You know you can trust me. Please talk to me Eric, because you're scaring the hell out of me right now," Calleigh nearly pleaded.

Eric was silent a long time, the last thing Calleigh said echoing in his mind. He could trust her and he knew that anything he said to her would stay between them. She had demonstrated it enough in the past. She had even put her own career and professional reputation in jeopardy last spring just to protect him. He could trust her with this. "I feel like my entire life has been a lie. The man who I thought was my father, isn't. My biological father is a horrible man; someone I'm deeply ashamed of. Calleigh, who the hell am I?"

Calleigh put her arm around his miserably slumped shoulders and drew him to her. He buried his face in her shoulder, clinging to to her as if she were a lifeline. "You are Eric Delko, the one person in this world that I trust completely. You are enormously intelligent, generous to a fault, loving and kind. You are every bit the gentleman that you were raised to be. Eric, nothing that really matters about you has changed. You're still the same man that you were yesterday. The man that raised you is more your father than the man that gave you half of your DNA is. Eric, listen to me. You're a scientist and know this to be true. You are exactly the same wonderful human being you were when you woke up this morning. What your mother told you doesn't change that."

Eric let her soothing words wash over his still painful wounds, letting them begin the healing process. "It's such a shock, learning this all now. I've always trusted them, you know. Now I find out that they've lied to me my whole life."

Calleigh couldn't keep the trembling out of her voice. He was hurting so badly that she couldn't help but hurt, too. "They lied to protect you, not deceive you. Your mother loves you so much and I've only met your dad when you were in the hospital, but he loves you as if you were his own flesh and blood. I could see it in his eyes. It doesn't matter to them. It shouldn't matter to you."

"I can't help it, Calleigh. Our lives are based in truth. We solve cases and uncover the truth every day. My life has been a lie from the day I was born. I don't think I can just get over it and be fine. Because of who my biological father is, I've been placed in the middle of something I'm not prepared to handle. I don't want it," Eric said defeatedly. He tried to take comfort from Calleigh's embrace but had to wonder if when she found out who his real father was if that embrace would leave him and be turned into a violent shove away. Calleigh had her own skeletons, he knew.; her father's drinking just being the tip of the iceberg. There had to be more there because of how closed off she always has been about her emotions. Something had to make her that way. Would he shove her away if he ever found out about her? He was sure he wouldn't, no matter how terrible the knowledge would be. He cared too much about her to do that.

"Eric, you don't have to go there alone. I'm right here. Just lean on me," she said, her eyes welling for him in his pain. She would take on his father and the entire Russian mob herself if she had to to keep Eric from hurting more. Without thought, she placed a soft, gentle kiss in his close cropped hair before leaning her cheek on his head. "I can't stand to see you hurting like this. If I could take this away from you, I would. I would do anything to help you."

His eyes welled, the realization that she was hurting _for _him hitting him like a fist. He had no words for what he suddenly felt. In her tender, yet firm embrace he felt safe. It was the first time that he had felt safe since he had been shot at that morning. He took a shaky breath, breathing in the soft, sweet aroma of her vanilla perfume. "Okay."

"Yeah?" Calleigh asked, shocked to hear him so willing to let her help him. "You can't go back to the motel anymore, can you?"

"No. Not until they're caught and put away," Eric replied, reluctantly pulling away from her, the sudden absence of her arms almost like a physical ache.

She nodded, missing the weight of his head on her shoulder. "Then you need someplace else to stay until you can go back to your place. I have an idea. Since the motel is a crime scene and there are police and CSI's everywhere, it would only look like evidence collection if someone went and got your things, put them in a department Hummer and brought them back here, right?"

"Yeah, but I can't live in the Lab, Calleigh."

"I'm not asking you to. When your things get here, we put them in the trunk of my car and you'll stay with me," she finished firmly.

"I can't ask-"

"You didn't; I offered. Listen, you need a safe place to stay and one that they'd never expect. I live in Bal Harbor in a nearly gated community. You can't get much safer than that. I won't take no for an answer. You're staying with me," she said with a finality that Eric couldn't deny.

"I just don't want to put you in harm's way," he said.

She sighed in an exasperated manner. "Have you looked at the shield on my hip or the one on yours? We put ourselves in harm's way every day. Why would this be any different?"

He cracked a slight smile at her. She could always manage to make him smile no matter what disaster was going on around them. "I guess it isn't really all that different."

She gave him a gentle smile back. "Good. You stay in the Lab. I'll go and collect the evidence from your motel room and bring it back. Is there anything I need to know about so I won't be surprised?"

"The room is a mess and there's Chinese take out all over the table. I wasn't exactly picking up after myself since they have Housekeeping," Eric said sheepishly. "And I didn't pack lightly."

"Okay. I'll get Natalia to help me, then. Just relax and let me take care of this, alright?"

Eric reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear; a very intimate gesture. "Thanks, Cal. You're the best."


End file.
